Mr. Monk Goes to the Bank
"Mr. Monk Goes to the Bank" is the 12th episode of the sixth season of Monk. Plot It's night time, and two cops are outside the West Bay Trust bank, writing a parking ticket for an illegally parked SUV. They mention that the bank had just been robbed the day before. As they write the ticket, the cop notices that his pen is out of ink. Deciding to give up, the cops leave, remarking that it must be the SUV driver's lucky day. But the view shifts to inside the bank, and then behind the door of the sealed vault, where four people are trapped: Adrian Monk, Natalie Teeger, Captain Stottlemeyer, and Lieutenant Disher. Flashback to a few days earlier: Monk and Natalie are preparing breakfast - or trying to, as Natalie complains about the toaster, and begs her boss to loosen his purse strings and buy a new one - when they see a news report that the West Bay Trust has been robbed. Monk drops everything and rushes to the scene, which is where he banks. At the crime scene, Stottlemeyer is taking statements from the employees about the robbery. They tell him that a heavily-accented Russian in a green hooded sweatshirt forced his way in, grabbed all the money, broke into the safety deposit boxes, and then, after shooting one of the tellers, Jasmine, in the shoulder, made his getaway with the stolen goods. Monk and Natalie arrive at the bank and confirm Monk's worst fear: a bracelet belonging to Trudy was stolen from Monk's safety deposit box. Monk vows to track it down. After reviewing the crime scene and surveillance footage, Monk makes an important discovery: "the Russian" wasn't working alone. One of the employees must have moved a potted plant to block the security cameras, and unlocked the bank's back entrance. Determined to track down the inside man, Monk takes a job as the bank's security guard so he can keep an eye on the staff. Pretty soon, he's narrowed the suspects down to one: bank manager Peter Crawley (for one thing, Crawley can't stop playing with a small model of a Jaguar luxury sedan on his desk). Sure enough, when Monk and Natalie stake out Crawley's house, they see a brand-new life-sized version parked on his driveway. It seems that all they have to do is wait for Crawley to come out, but Natalie notices something dripping from underneath the car - blood. They pop the trunk and find Crawley's dead body inside, shot twice in the head. A search of Crawley's house and corpse doesn't turn up Trudy's bracelet, but a pawn ticket in Crawley's pocket leads them to a local pawnshop. Again, the bracelet is nowhere to be found, but the pawnbroker does mention something that piques Monk's interest: apparently when Crawley pawned the items, he mentioned still having another "half a box" full of jewelry. Following this lead, Natalie and Monk return to the bank after business hours, where Stottlemeyer and Disher are waiting. Madge, one of the tellers, lets them in, and Monk explains what he's figured out: the money and stolen goods never left the bank. They're still sitting in a safety deposit box in the vault – the one box the robber allegedly didn't open. Madge agrees to open the box to check, and goes to get the key, leaving the others waiting in the vault. While she's gone, Monk notices something in the otherwise empty wastebasket: six toothpicks, one shorter than the others. With that, Monk solves the case, and yells that they need to get out, immediately. Unfortunately, Madge has seen him on a surveillance camera, and she rushes to the back and shuts the door of the vault, trapping Monk, Natalie, Stottlemeyer and Disher trapped inside. The scene returns to the present. After the other three wear themselves out shouting for help, Monk lies down in a corner, preparing to suffocate to death. Natalie tells him not to panic, they only need to last through the night, until the rest of the staff open the vault for business the next morning. Mournfully, Monk says that won't happen. There wasn't just one inside man, or even two – it was all of them! Here's What Happened There was no "Russian" - the six members of the bank staff staged the "robbery" like a play, with one of them (probably Madge) playing the robber and the rest of them playing the victims. After moving the money and the valuables to the single safe box, the robber escaped the bank, and then discarded her costume and returned to work as normal. For the sake of verisimilitude, they decided that one of them had to get shot, though not seriously. So they drew straws (the toothpicks), and Jasmine drew the short one. When Natalie asks why Crawley was killed, Stottlemeyer reasons that the thieves must have made a pact not to spend any of the money until they could divide it, but Crawley couldn't resist. Outside the vault, the staff have left the vault sealed, pretending that an electronic failure has occurred, and turning away all customers who want to access their safe boxes. Inside, Disher breaks open the safe box and finds the money and jewelry. Small comfort though it is, Stottlemeyer finds Trudy's bracelet and hands it over to Monk. Since they can't depend on help coming from outside before they suffocate, Stottlemeyer decides their best bet is to break into a wall panel, in which he hopes there is a telephone line. But all their attempts to break the padlock guarding the panel (including shooting it) fail, until Stottlemeyer pleads with Monk to let him use the bracelet. Monk gives it up, and Stottlemeyer uses the diamonds to saw through the steel lock (though not without some damage to the bracelet). Inside the panel, there is no telephone, but the next best thing: the control panel for the electronic ad board on the outside of the bank. Knowing that there is at least one witness in front of the bank at all times - a "Living Statue" - Randy sends a personalized message to him, and the Statue calls the police. A few days later, the crooked staff have been arrested, and the bank's new manager extends his special thanks to Monk. Natalie seizes the opportunity to ask for a new toaster, which the bank is giving away as a promotion. Outside the bank, the Living Statue is arguing furiously (through a clenched jaw) with his new competitor: Randy. Quotes is practicing his "Living Statue" act. Natalie: Randy...? What are you doing? (no answer) Natalie: (laughing) Hello? Are you all right? (She walks in a circle around him, he doesn't move.) Natalie: Oh, my gosh... tickle, tickle, tickle! (no response) All right... (She starts to walk away, then turns back and jumps off the floor and onto Randy's shoulder. He still doesn't move.) Natalie: I'm gonna take these two pencils, and I'm gonna stick them up your nose. (does) Pencil number one... (does) Pencil number two. (still no response) Natalie: Our tax dollars at work. Monk: I'm gonna die here. Natalie: No, you are not! Monk: You're right. (gets up and moves to another corner) I'm gonna die over here. I call this spot. The rest of you can die someplace else. Stottlemeyer: That's it. Monk is no longer the morale officer. Category:Monk Episodes